Alternating Universes Could Be601
by Teyerin
Summary: An other-worldy chat between friends.


Alternating Universes Could be…601

Disclaimer: Don't own the LO characters, the Andromeda Strain character reference or the Doctor Who mode of transportation. Will admit to owning to the poor choice of watching the original AS at close to midnight after reading the Alternate Universe/Doctor Who challenges on the LO 100/Thursday 100 Plus boards.

"I could really use a TARDIS about now."

Benjamin Stone looked up at and asked, removing his glasses, "Come again?"

Paul Robinette's lips turned upward as he kept his focus on gathering up his few belongings left in Ben's office.

"I could _really_ use a TARDIS about now," Claire Kincaid repeated. She shook her head as she tried to make sense of the notes before her. "Nothing here makes any sense - I see nothing but inconsistencies with the testimonies, the photos are useless and…." She kept talking to herself as she disappeared to her own office just down the hall.

Paul knew that his replacement would be quite a match for his former boss and mentor. As much as Ben had seen himself as a 'classics' man, the idea that this young woman believed in reaching out for the stars figuratively could easily stretch to literally.

"Paul? Could you help out here for a moment?"

Masking his face with innocence, he turned and asked, "Want me to try and interpret some of those things there or give Logan and Briscoe a call to clear things up?"

Ben shook his head. "What is a TARDIS?"

Without missing a beat, Paul explained, "Everyone knows it stands for the 'Time and relative dimensions in space' device. I suppose you need me to explain Doctor Who to you, too." Paul said looking down so he couldn't see Ben's reaction.

"Oh great," the Irishman said. "So you know science fiction, too, huh, Paul?"

The younger man couldn't resist, taking a seat nearby. "I've been known to take in an adventure from time to time - films, books - you know, various objects in space."

"Uh-huh," Ben said dryly. "And whom, pray tell, do you imagine yourself as during these adventures? A ship's captain? Communication officer? "

"A bounty hunter," Paul said. "In the meantime, I bide my time with law down here. I'm surprised you didn't enjoy a good Wells or Verne story every now and then."

Ben shook his head. "Crichton was my choice so-."

That surprised Paul. "Well, then you can't tell me you've not read-?"

"I've read it," he said. "Found it humorous that the main character was very much like my older brother, name and all."

"That wouldn't be the one you've referred to as the pain-in-the-neck-professor-?"

Ben nodded. "The one and the same, Paul, the one and the same. Look, I'm sorry about-."

Paul held up a hand. "Times change, events change. I'm still in the realm of law, so I'm sure I'll be seeing you from time to time. Heaven forbid it won't be in a locked laboratory five levels underground."

"Or worse," Ben said, "I'd be seeing you on the other side of the aisle."

Paul pondered the possibility. "That sounds like a pleasant thing to sleep on," the younger man said, getting up to leave. "Don't be too hard on Kincaid, Ben. I'm sure she can teach you a thing or two."

"Like a certain man deciding his identity perhaps?" Ben asked, shaking his hand.

"Perhaps," Paul said. "Until the next time we meet, old friend, thanks for everything."

-----

Ben Stone knew change was inevitable. He only had to look at who occupied the main office on the tenth floor.

However, there were moments when Ben wished he could go back in time and clear up murky situations, make sense of some of the senseless things and prevent certain personal mistakes that plagued him still.

His relationship with Jeremy Stone was one of them.

Yes, his brother believed in rational explanations; yes he preferred the 'step-child' of science: biology, and yes, he, like Ben, walked away from religion for a time. However, the two men had walked away from far more than that on a lot less.

That was what weighed on Ben's mind now as he tried to fall asleep, dismissing the changes made at One Hogan place and trying to focus on the changes he wanted to make in his own personal life.

--

He found himself in a surreal world, sterile for all practical purposes and yet…

"And you knew, Stone! You knew it!"

Ben turned and saw a bespectacled woman he couldn't quite recognize and yet said without thinking, "That's not true, Ruth! I learned about Scoop the same time you did!"

A sudden sense of déjà vu struck him as the conversation continued, Ben hearing himself saying, "That map only shows what Andromeda _could_ do in the hands of an enemy."

The man who called himself Dr. Dutton said, "Enemy? We did it to _ourselves!_"

Ben found himself going through the motions as if he were _Jeremy_ Stone, not his brother, not himself. And yet, Ben found the 'mask' comfortably easy to wear.

Even as the dream, the scenario came to a close, the race against time to save Project Wildfire, the presentation to the committee about the closure of the 'biological crisis,' Ben could see perhaps that not all of science fiction was nonsense or hocus pocus.

As he mouthed the last words in a dream-state, words he'd uttered only hours or days before regarding a tug-of-war over a case, Benjamin Stone knew who he was, time traveling not withstanding. He knew that there were limits meant to be respected and limits worth breaking. He knew there could be such a thing as memory overload or mental breakdown. He knew…

"Precisely, senator, what do we do?"

The dream morphed into different settings, different personas, different times, all the while, Benjamin firmly confident in who he was, as still as a stone in a speeding stream of chaos.


End file.
